Combined display and storage rack

ABSTRACT

A swingable storage rack, preferably for posters, paintings, and the like. The rack is provided with support means for pivoting about a supporting structure. Marginal holding means are provided along opposite faces thereof for displaying a work of art along each of the opposing faces. Gravity-feed storage means are provided between the display surfaces for holding and storing a plurality of copies of the works of art being displayed, which are maintained within the storage portion in tubular form. Dispensing means are provided at the bottom end thereof whereby the lowermost copy may be removed, causing the remaining copies to feed downwardly by gravity. The copy to be dispensed is lifted outwardly in a direction transverse to the plane of the work of art being displayed. Alternatively, the bottom most copy of the work of art being displayed may be drawn outwardly therefrom along a line substantially parallel to the plane of the work of art being displayed. A plurality of such combined display-storage racks may be pivotally mounted upon a suitable support, whereby all such racks are swingable so as to facilitate observation of each of the works of art being displayed.

United States Patent [191 Ehrlich Dec. 11, 1973 1 1 COMBINED DISPLAY AND STORAGE RACK [76] Inventor: Mary Roberta Ehrlich, 425 E. 52nd St., New York, N.Y. 10016 [22] Filed: Aug. 12, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 171,279

[52] US. Cl 211/49 D, 211/47, 211/169 [51] Int. Cl. A471 H00 [58] Field of Search 211/47, 49 D, 169,

Primary Examiner-Roy D. Frazier Assistant Examiner-Thomas J. Holko Attorney-Sidney G. Faber et al.

[57] ABSTRACT A swingable storage rack, preferably for posters, paintings, and the like. The rack is provided with support means for pivoting about a supporting structure. Marginal holding means are provided along opposite faces thereof for displaying a work of art along each of the opposing faces. Gravity-feed storage means are provided between the display surfaces for holding and storing a plurality of copies of the works of art being displayed, which are maintained within the storage portion in tubular form. Dispensing means are provided at the bottom end thereof whereby the lowermost copy may be removed, causing the remaining copies to feed downwardly by gravity. The copy to be dispensed is lifted outwardly in a direction transverse to the plane of the work of art being displayed. Alternatively, the bottom most copy of the work of art being displayed may be drawn outwardly therefrom along a line substantially parallel to the plane of the work of art being displayed. 1

A plurality of such combined display-storage racks may be pivotally mounted upon a suitable support, whereby all such racks are swingable so as to facilitate observation of each of the works of art being displayed.

9 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures '1 111 ill ill PAIENIEB 1 same or 2 COMBINED DISPLAY AND STORAGE RACK The present invention relates to display means and more particularly to a novel swingable rack assembly having means for releaseably mountinga work of art along each of its opposing faces and having storage means provided between its opposing faces for storing, in tubular fashion, a plurality of copies of the work of art being displayed and further providing gravity-feed dispensing means to facilitate removal of a copy of the work of art being displayed.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The desire to own and display works of art has increased greatly in recent years. Such works of art may be in the form of posters, reproductions of paintings, photographs, and other similar forms of art objects which are either produced or reproduced, for example, in poster form.

In the distribution or sale of such posters, it is important to provide reasonably good access to the selection of posters available and to provide a convenient means for storing copies of the posters on display.

One typical form of state of the art display racks consists of providing a display of each of the available posters in substantially reduced size to facilitate their observation while at the same time providing means for storing copies of each of the posters on display which are preferably rolled up in tubular form so as to facilitate the storage, handling and dispensing of the poster copies. The disadvantage of this approach resides in the fact that the potential customer does not have the advantage of viewing the work of art in its actual size, thereby reducing the effectiveness of the display. Another conventional display rack consists of a plurality of frames for releaseably mounting posters in swingable racks to facilitate the observation of any individual poster. Separate storage means must then be provided for storing copies of each of the posters, preferably wrapped or wound in tubular form to facilitate their storage and handling. This necessitates the provision of storage means divorced from the immediate local of the posters on display and thereby requiring the customer to select a poster by means of a code identifying the desired one.

A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is characterized by providing a novel combined poster display and storage means wherein the copies of the poster on display are stored immediately adjacent the displayed poster wherein the displayed poster and storage means are swingably mounted so as to facilitate simultaneous observation of the poster and selection of the desired copy.

The present invention is comprised of a rack assembly having holding means for releaseably mounting a full size copy of the poster to enhance the viewing and selection thereof. A plurality of racks may be mounted upon a single support, all of which racks are swingable so as to permit observation of any one of the posters on display. Gravity-feed storage means is provided immediately behind and integral with each poster display, whereby a copy of the desired poster may be removed from a dispensing structure provided immediately behind and/or beneath the displayed poster whereupon the next rolled up poster positioned immediately above the dispensed poster falls by gravity into the dispensing position. The open structure of the display rack provides means for immediately ascertaining a count of the available copies for inventory and reordering purposes.

It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide a novel unitary rack assembly which, in turn, provides for both display and storage of a poster or other work of art and for storage of copies thereof immediately behind the displayed article or picture (preferably in rolled-up form), together with gravity-feed dispenser means to facilitate observation and selection of a poster.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a plurality of swingable rack assemblies of the type described hereinabove so as to facilitate observation of the plural works of art available while at the same time reducing the overall amount of space occupied by the rack assemblies.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES The above as well as other objects of the present invention will become apparent when reading the accompanying description and drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a display assembly employing a plurality of display racks designed in accordance with the principles of the present invention.

FIG. 1a is a back view of the display assembly of FIG. 1 showing a single display rack mounted thereon.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing one of the plurality of display racks of FIG. 1 in greater detail.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing one of the plurality of display racks of FIGS. 1 and 2 in which the works of art and copies thereof are shown mounted within the display rack.

FIG. 4a is a perspective view showing still another preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4b is a perspective view showing a portion of the embodiment of FIG. 40 wherein one of the pivot members is shown in greater detail.

FIG. 4c shows an exploded perspective view of the fastening members employed in the embodiment of FIG. 4a.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES FIG. 1 shows a graphic arts or poster display apparatus l0 comprised of a support assembly I 1 for supporting and swingably mounting a plurality of individual combined display-storage rack assemblies 12.

The display support is comprised of a first pair of uprights 13 and 14 and a second pair of uprights 15 and 16. Uprights l5 and 16 are each provided with lower leg portions 15a and 160, respectively, for supporting the display assembly upon a surface such as, for example, a floor. The bottom ends of uprights 13 and 14 are secured at points intermediate the ends of leg portions 15a and 16a by suitable fastening means 17. The upper ends of uprights l3 and 14 are joined together by welding or other suitable fastening means at 18 and are further secured to an upper cross-bar 19. A lower crossbar 20 has its opposite ends secured to uprights l3 and 14, respectively, by welding or other suitable fastening means provided at locations 21. The display support is reenforced by diagonally aligned reenforcing struts 22 and 23 which are coupled with their right-hand ends (relative to FIG. 2) to upright 15 by suitable fastening means 24,24 and at their left-hand ends to upright 16 by fastening means 25,25.

The upper and lower cross arms 19 and 20 are each provided with a plurality of apertures 19a and 20a, respectively, for swingably supporting display racks 12.

Since each of the display racks 12 are substantially identical to one another in design and function, only one display rack will be described herein for purposes of simplicity in conjunction with FIGS. 2 and 3. The display rack 12, as shown in FIG. 2, is comprised of upper, middle and lower substantially rectangular frames 31, 32 and 33, respectively, each of which is formed of a substantially rigid rod-shaped metal bent or otherwise formed so as to provide the desired configuration. Each of the rectangular frames is further provided with a straight elongated rod 34, and 36, respectively, each which have their opposite ends welded to the short sides of the rectangular forms 31-33, respectively.

The rectangular frames 31, 32 and 33 are maintained in spaced parallel fashion by means of a first pair of vertically aligned elongated rods 37 and 38 which are preferably welded to the short sides of the rectangular forms 31, 32 and 33 at the points A, B and C, respectively. The lower ends of rods 37 and 38 are joined along their bottom ends to form a substantially U- shaped bottom portion 39. Preferably, the rods 37 and 38 may be formed from a single, elongated rod bent at 39 to derive the desired structure.

A similar structure is provided at the rearward end of the rack assembly and is comprised of a pair of rods 40 and 41, forming a U-shaped portion 42 at the lower ends thereof and welded to the remaining short sides of frames 31, 32 and 33 at the points A, B and C, respectively.

A first pair of vertically aligned spaced parallel rods 43 and 44 are welded to horizontal rods 34, 35 and 36 at points D, E and F, respectively. The lower ends of rods 43 and 44 are bent upwardly at 43a and 44a, respectively, with their free ends being integrally joined with the horizontally aligned rod 45 to form a dispensing arrangement as will be more fully described. Preferably, the rods 43 and 44 and the horizontal rod 45 may be formed from a single elongated rod bent to the configuration as shown in FIG. 2. A similar pair of rods 46 and 47 are likewise welded to horizontally aligned rods 34, 35 and 36 at points D, E and F on the side of rods 34-35 opposite rods 43 and 44. The bottom ends of these rods are bent at 46a and 47a, respectively, and are joined to a horizontally aligned rod 48 to form a second dispensing facility. In the same manner as was previously described, it should be understood that rods 46, 47 and 48 may be formed from a single rod bent into the appropriate configuration.

A pair of holding clips 50 and 51 are mounted to long arm 33a of frame 33, preferably by welding, to support a poster or other work of art to be displayed. A similar pair of mounting clips 50a and 51a are provided along the remaining long arm 33b of frame 33 andare likewise preferably welded thereto.

The vertical marginal edges of a poster are releaseably secured to the display means along opposite sides thereof by means of vertically aligned rods 53-54 and 55-56, respectively. The upper ends of rods 53 and 55 are joined to U-shaped rod portion 57 while the lower ends of rods 53 and 55 are joined to U-shaped rod portion 58. The central portion of each of the U-shaped sections 57 and 58 are preferably welded to vertically aligned rods 40 and 41 at points G and H, respectively. The poster marginal display holding means for the vertical sides of the posters may preferably be formed of a single elongated rod which is bent 'or otherwise formed so as to provide the configuration defined by rods 53 and 55 and U-shaped sections57 and 58. A similar arrangement for securing vertical rods 54 and 56 is provided and is comprised of U-shaped sections 59 and 60 welded to vertically aligned rods 37 and 38 at points J and L, respectively.

Horizontally aligned rods 34 and 36 are provided at their rearward ends with downwardly bent portions 34a and 36a for mounting in selected openings 19a and 20a provided in the cross arms 19 and 20 for swingable mounting of the combined display-storage rack 12.

FIG. 3 shows a rack of the type shown in FIG. 2 wherein a poster is displayed therein. Preferably, a relatively stiff piece of cardboard may be positioned behind the poster 70 so as to impart stiffness to the poster and maintain it in a flat condition. If desired, the poster may be stapled, taped, or otherwise joined to the cardboard sheet 71. The cardboard sheet 71, together with the poster 70, is positioned so as to rest against associated long sides of the rectangular shaped frames 31, 32 and 33. The bottom marginal edges of the poster and cardboard sheet are supported by the upright fingers 50 and 51. The vertically aligned left-hand and right-hand marginal edges are releaseably held by the vertically aligned rods 53 and 54 in the manner shown. Copies 70' of the poster on display are wound into tubular form and may be inserted either at the top, at the bottom or the sides of the storage rack so as to be maintained in substantially vertical alignment between the displayed poster and the vertical rods 43 and 44. As can clearly be seen, a poster may be displayed on the opposite side thereof in a like manner and rolled up copies thereof may be stored in a vertically aligned fashion between their associated poster and the rods 46 and 47. If desired, the rods 37 and 38 may be located relative to the cardboard sheets 71 to prevent posters 70' from being removed from the end of the display.

As shown best in FIG. 1, each of the display racks 12 may be swung to a position so that the posters which it displays may be clearly and fully observable to a customer. If desired, the posters on opposite sides of an individual display rack may be identical or, alternatively, may be different whereby the wrapped-up copies are maintained separated by the centrally mounted rods 43-44 and 46-47.

Dispensing of a selected poster may be accomplished by removing the bottom-most rolled up poster 70" which is supported by the dispensing frame comprised of the bent portions 46a and 47a, for example. By removing the poster from the dispensing frame, the remaining posters drop a distance equal to the diameter of the dispensed poster whereupon the next rolled up poster 70" automatically is fed by gravity into the dispensing position. If desired, the bent portion 39 may be shortened or otherwise modified so as to enable a poster to be pulled out directly from the display rack in a direction substantially parallel to the plain face of the display poster and in the direction of arrow M, as opposed to lifting the poster from the dispensing frame in a direction transverse to the plain face of the displayed poster as indicated by arrow P.

YVhereas the display rack assembly of FIG. 1 shows each of the individual racks as mounted upon a floor support 11, it should be understood that the support may be placed above the surface of the floor or, alternatively, may be a wall mounted support rack or any other suitable support means adapted, for swingably mounting each of the individual racks 12. ..Also, whereas the frames of each display rack are shown as being formed of a suitable metallic material, it should be understood that the racks may be formed of plastic or any other suitable material.

Still another preferred embodiment of the present in vention is shown at FIGS. 4a-4c wherein the embodiment 80 shown therein is comprised of first, second and third rectangular-shaped rigid sheets 81, 82 and 83 1 which may, for example, be formed of wood, plastic, a lightweight metal or any other suitable material. The sheets may be provided with holes or a plurality of large openings to reduce their weight. For example, sheet 81 may be provided with opening 81a shown in dotted fashion. The sheets are maintained in spaced parallel fashion by fastening assemblies 91 provided at each of the four corners of the structure. A detailed arrangement of the fastening assemblies 91 are shown in FIG. 40 which comprises an elongated threaded bolt 87' adapted to pass through openings (not shown) provided in the corners of each of the sheets 81-83 and aligned with one another. A pair of hollow cylindrical spacers 89 and 90 are mounted upon the threaded bolt 87 with hollow cylindrical spacer 89 being positioned between the opposing surfaces of sheets 82 and 83 and with spacer 90 being positioned between the opposing faces of sheets 83 and 81. Securement of the fastening assembly is afforded by nut 88 which bears against the exposed surface of sheet 81, for example. It should be understood that the holes provided in the exposed surfaces of sheets 81 and 82 may be countersunk so as to cause the head of bolt 87 and nut 88 to be substantially flush with the exposed surfaces of these sheets.

It can therefore be seen that the sheets are maintained in substantially spaced parallel fashion wherein the hollow interior region between sheets 82 and 83 and between sheets 81 and 83serve as the storage area for rolled up posters 70. The intermediate barrier sheet 83 can be seen to extend downwardly below the lower ends of sheets 81 and 82 and has secured thereto a horizontally aligned substantially rectangular shaped member 84 provided with upwardly extending lips 84a and 84b along its long sides. This arrangement causes the lowermost tubular members 70", 70" to rest upon the upper surface of member 84 and be prevented from removal by the presence of the upwardly extending lips 84a and 84b, respectively. It can be seen that the lips 84a and 84b lie a spaced distance beneath the lower edges of sheets 82 and 81 so as to enable the tubular member resting upon member 84 to be removed, thereby enabling the next tubular member positioned thereabove to fall upon the dispensing member 84 by gravity and be retained by the lip 84a.

Sheet 81 is provided with flanges 85a, 85b and 85c secured to the sheet 81 along three sides thereof so as to define channels for receiving three respective sides of a poster which may be displayed thereon. Sheet 82 is similarly provided with like flanges 86a and 86b (the flange being provided along the lower horizontal edge of sheet 82 being concealed due to the nature of the perspective view).

The assembly 80 may be swingably mounted upon a support of the type shown in FIG. 1 by providing a pair of L-shaped members 93 and 94, each being secured to the upper and lower edges respectively of intermediate sheet 83. FIG. 4b shows the manner in which L-shaped member 93 is secured thereto. L-shaped member 93 is provided with an arm 93a having a substantially rectangular cross-section and an arm 93b having a substantially cylindrical cross-section. Arm 93a is provided with suitable openings for receiving fastening members such as, for example, screws to secure L-shaped member 93 to the upper edge of sheet 83. Lower member 94 may be secured to the lower left-hand edge of sheet 83 in a similar fashion so as to be aligned in the manner shown best in FIG. 411.

It can be seen from the foregoing description that the present invention provides a novel combined display and storage means for displaying works of art such as, for example, posters in which each of the individual posters available being offered for sale are readily observable by virtue of the swingable mounting of the racks, in which copies of each poster are mounted immediately behind the poster being displayed to facilitate both storage and selection thereof and wherein the open nature of the framework further facilitates a quick check on the number of copies of each displayed poster to thereby greatly facilitate the need for reordermg.

Although there has been described a preferred embodiment of this novel invention, many variations and modifications will now be apparent to those skilled in the art. Therefore, this invention is to be limited, not by the specific disclosure herein, but only by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. Rack means for combined storage and display of posters and other like large surface works of graphic arts wherein the works are stored in rolled up fashion in the form of tubular members, comprising:

first and second framing means arranged in spaced fashion for and being substantially vertically aligned and adapted for releasably positioning and securing at least two marginal portions of a flat sheet which may be a poster, photograph or other large surface work of graphic art;

joining means secured to said framing for maintaining said first and second framing means in their spaced relationship whereby the flat sheets mounted within said framing means are on opposite sides of said rack means;

dispensing means secured to said joining means for supporting at least one of said tubular members heneath and parallel to the lower edge of one of said framing means and barrier means cooperating with said framing means and said joining means to support and store additional tubular members within the region between said framing means and above said dispensing means;

the free end of said dispensing means being separated from the lower edge of an associated one of said framing means to facilitate removal of the tubular member supported by said dispensing means and enabling the next. tubular member immediately above the removed tubular member to fall by gravity into a dispensing position.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a rack means support;

said rack means including means for swingably mounting said rack means upon said support to facilitate observation of said graphic arts works being displayed.

3. A display assembly comprising a support;

a plurality of rack means of the type described in claim 1; each of said rack means including means for swingably mounting the rack means to said support at spaced intervals therealong to facilitate observation of any of the graphic arts works being displayed. 4. The rack means of claim 1, wherein said joining means is of short length to cause said first and second framing means to be spaced apart a short distance; the length of said joining means being selected to cause said first and second framing means to be spaced apart about the width of the tubular members which are between said framing means.

5. A display assembly comprising a support; a plurality of rack means of the type described in claim 4;

each of said rack means including means for swingably mounting the rack means to said support at spaced intervals therealong to facilitate observation of any of the graphic arts works being displayed.

6. The apparatus of claim 1,

wherein each of said framing means comprises a substantially rectangular frame;

projection means provided along the sides of said frame for releasably securing a flat sheet between said frame and said projection means;

said joining means comprising rods spanning said frames to maintain said frames in spaced parallel fashion;

said barrier means being coupled to said joining means and positioned between and parallel to said frames, the lower ends of said barrier means being comprised of a pair of downwardly extending rods, each having their lower free ends bent to form said dispensing means as a curved J-shaped configuration for supporting a tubular member thereon below the lower edge of one of said rectangular frames.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, further comprising a second pair of downwardly extending rods joined to said barrier means and having their free ends bent toward an associated frame to form a curved J-shaped configuration for supporting a tubular member thereon below the remaining one of said rectangular frames.

8. A rack assembly for display and for storage of the graphic arts works on display rolled up in the form of tubular members, comprising:

upper and lower rigid elongated rectangular shaped frame members having two long and two short sides;

first and second pairs of joining rods respectively secured to the first and second short sides of said frames for maintaining said frames in spaced parallel fashion; first and second pairs of framing rods and means for respectively joining said framing rods to each of said first and second pairs of joining rods for releaseably securing opposite marginal edges of posters positioned against the long sides of said frames;

barrier means comprising first and second rods respectively joined to said first and second frames at points intermediate the first and second short sides of said frames and a pair of dividing rods each being secured at spaced intervals to said first and second rods and aligned transverse to said first and second rods;

the lower free ends of said dividing rods extending below said lower frame and being bent outwardly and upwardly toward one long side of said lower frame to form a U-shaped configuration for supporting a tubular member thereon;

the extremities of said lower free ends being spaced below said one long side of said lower frame to facilitate removal of the tubular member being supported by said lower free ends to enable the next tubular member above the removed tubular member to fall by gravity upon the U-shaped portion of said lower free ends;

a support;

means secured to said upper and lower frames for swingably mounting said frames upon said support to facilitate observation of said poster.

9. The rack assembly of claim 8 further comprising U-shaped clips secured to one long side of said lower frame member for supporting the lower marginal edge of said poster. 

1. Rack means for combined storage and display of posters and other like large surface works of graphic arts wherein the works are stored in rolled up fashion in the form of tubular members, comprising: first and second framing means arranged in spaced fashion for and being substantially vertically aligned and adapted for releasably positioning and securing at least two marginal portions of a flat sheet which may be a poster, photograph or other large surface work of graphic art; joining means secured to said framing for maintaining said first and second framing means in their spaced relationship whereby the flat sheets mounted within said framing means are on opposite sides of said rack means; dispensing means secured to said joining means for supporting at least one of said tubular members beneath and parallel to the lower edge of one of said framing means and barrier means cooperating with said framing means and said joining means to support and store additional tubular members within the region between said framing means and above said dispensing means; the free end of said dispensing means being separated from the lower edge of an associated one of said framing means to facilitate removal of the tubular member supported by said dispensing means and enabling the next tubular member immediately above the removed tubular member to fall by gravity into a dispensing position.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a rack means support; said rack means including means for swingably mounting said rack means upon said support to facilitate observation of said graphic arts works being displayed.
 3. A display assembly comprising a support; a plurality of rack means of the type described in claim 1; each of said rack means including means for swingably mounting the rack means to said support at spaced intervals therealong to facilitate observation of any of the graphic arts works being displayed.
 4. The rack means of claim 1, wherein said joining means is of short length to cause said first and second framing means to be spaced apart a short distance; the length of said joining means being selected to cause said first and second framing means to be spaced apart about the width of the tubular members which are between said framing means.
 5. A display assembly comprising a support; a plurality of rack means of the type described in claim 4; each of said rack means including means for swingably mounting the rack means to said support at spaced intervals therealong to facilitate observation of any of the graphic arts works being displayed.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of said framing means comprises a substantially rectangular frame; projection means provided along the sides of said frame for releasably securing a flat sheet between said frame and said projection means; said joining means comprising rods spanning said frames to maintain said frames in spaced parallel fashion; said barrier means being coupled to said joining means and positioned between and parallel to said fraMes, the lower ends of said barrier means being comprised of a pair of downwardly extending rods, each having their lower free ends bent to form said dispensing means as a curved J-shaped configuration for supporting a tubular member thereon below the lower edge of one of said rectangular frames.
 7. The apparatus of claim 6, further comprising a second pair of downwardly extending rods joined to said barrier means and having their free ends bent toward an associated frame to form a curved J-shaped configuration for supporting a tubular member thereon below the remaining one of said rectangular frames.
 8. A rack assembly for display and for storage of the graphic arts works on display rolled up in the form of tubular members, comprising: upper and lower rigid elongated rectangular shaped frame members having two long and two short sides; first and second pairs of joining rods respectively secured to the first and second short sides of said frames for maintaining said frames in spaced parallel fashion; first and second pairs of framing rods and means for respectively joining said framing rods to each of said first and second pairs of joining rods for releaseably securing opposite marginal edges of posters positioned against the long sides of said frames; barrier means comprising first and second rods respectively joined to said first and second frames at points intermediate the first and second short sides of said frames and a pair of dividing rods each being secured at spaced intervals to said first and second rods and aligned transverse to said first and second rods; the lower free ends of said dividing rods extending below said lower frame and being bent outwardly and upwardly toward one long side of said lower frame to form a U-shaped configuration for supporting a tubular member thereon; the extremities of said lower free ends being spaced below said one long side of said lower frame to facilitate removal of the tubular member being supported by said lower free ends to enable the next tubular member above the removed tubular member to fall by gravity upon the U-shaped portion of said lower free ends; a support; means secured to said upper and lower frames for swingably mounting said frames upon said support to facilitate observation of said poster.
 9. The rack assembly of claim 8 further comprising U-shaped clips secured to one long side of said lower frame member for supporting the lower marginal edge of said poster. 